Yay! I'm back from New York. It was a great trip.


We left MIT at 5:50 am to catch the 7:00 am Chinatown bus. I slept the entire ride. We ate lunch in Little Italy, and then headed to our hotel. It was raining and snowing at the same time, which was kind of yucky. We went to Times Square, and saw. . . such an extravagant display of commercialism! But I like well-done ads in general, and found the billboards quite entertaining. Especially the steaming Gaint Cup O' Noodles ^^. We went to Kinokuniya, a bookstore with exclusively Japanese books, in Rockefeller Center. Waaah! Lindy and I could have spent the whole day there. She found some Link manga, which made her happy, and I found Ai Yazawa's Gokinjo Monogatari (Neighborhood Stories), which I haven't been able to find in English at all ^^, plus the autobiography Madogiwa No Totto-Chan, which I've read over and over in English. They both have little furigana characters by the kanji, which means I can read it if I spend about an hour on every page and look up the words I don't know =P. There was also an instructional book on how to make plushies. Super cute ^^. We saw "Beauty and the Beast" on Broadway, ate dinner at a cute little Japanese restaurant. We wanted to go to the Hershey's factory store, but it was closed by then, and our attempts to make pouty faces at the workers inside resulted in hilarious fits of giggles, and total obliviousness on the workers' part. So we headed back to the hotel.


I slept well--- I used to sleep horribly in hotels. But I wish I still slept horribly--- as being concious meant I'm considerate enough to the person I'm sharing a bed with. Lindy slept horribly since I fought with her over the covers (without me knowing it ?), and I felt awful.


This morning was very yay too! After a large breakfast at Munsun's diner, we went to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Vikki and Lindy reminded me of "The Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler", which I had totally forgotten took place there. I could have stayed there forever too. The rooms of the museum are so beautiful themselves, and totally create the optimum atmosphere for enjoying the artwork. I loved all the Tiffany glass, the armor displays. . . After a hotdog in Central Park, we had to board the bus back to Boston.


The city struck me as very busy, and though I'm glad I finally got to see it for myself, I don't know if I could live there. Boston feels much more like home. Tomorrow--- back to my ice-skating, robot routine. I wonder how far Brett's gotten. . . I also plan to practice the violin (I promise this time!), go grocery shopping, study more kanji, and start planning out my painting.